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Apple Officially Obsoletes First MacBook Pro With a Retina Display

Ah my 2012 rMBP 2.3 16 512! This was the first Mac I purchased and was at launch; what an amazing machine. It was still going strong until 2017 when it was stolen from my bag after meeting up with some friends in the pub. I’m sure I would still be using it today.

Just sold my 2017 tbMBP that was also a launch purchase; the keys were too loud whilst typing and not too sure on how much longer the keys Longevity; given the numerous issues and subsequent change in direction re: magic keyboard.

I’m now undecided between a mid range Mini or go with the new 10th gen 13 as I’m largely stuck at home now and now docking almost exclusively.
 
Irrespective of Intel completely falling off the wagon the pace of progress has slowed substantially. I'm still using my MBP 13" from 2014 and it's still as snappy as ever. Sure for demanding tasks which push the CPU I notice a difference but for everyday tasks I can't really tell the difference between the latest and greatest (XPS 9700, MBP 16). Just changed the battery too.

I guess I'm just a consumerist glutton being fooled into needing the last tech.
 
Still got mine! typing on it now...problem is will it get me through the arm transition? or do I stump up more money on a dead intel platform and replace with a 16"

Its easily the best machine Apple has made, possibly to good they need to actually kill them off! The new ones look plagued with issues and don't seem as well built.

I will be sad to see this go as its a true Steve jobs era machine its hardly crashed and looks as immaculate as the day I got it and that was secondhand off eBay!

I will miss the apple of old when this lovely machine dies.
 
was my daily notebook till about 2 years ago, still a good machine, the only things that pushed me to make it a secondary was the fact the SSD was mSATA and the Thunderbolt 1 performance took and additional 20% or so of my eGPU's performance over TB2 in my 2015.

the fact both had removable HD's gives me peace of mind for data recovery/repair as well as the ability to move the drive once i deem the laptop no longer meets my needs. (a 2tb mSATA and 2tb nvme will be usefull long after these computers aren't assuming they hold up write cycle-wise)

the 2tb mSATA drive for the 2012 was annoying to come by though, Samsung didnt sell it to non-OEMs outside of their external but that's another story

still both were superior machines, especially compared to the literal trash of 2016-2018 of MBP however they corrected a lot of the mistakes on the 16" but its still a step down in some ways.

the 2015 will probably be my daily driver till apple forces me back to Hackintoshes but I was really close to keeping my maxed 2019 but judging by Apple's treatment of pro's they want me to Hackintosh or leave the platform which after 30 years of patronage i'm reluctant to do.
 
The rMBP was the beginning of the glossy (glare) screen standard. Remember when glossy screens were an option?

In 2012 I bought the last cMBP with an antiglare screen. It was probably my favourite MBP to date. I replaced the optical drive with a second hard drive and a few years ago, added an SSD and doubled the RAM. It was almost as peppy as my newer 2015 15" for many things and even booted MacOS faster. Eventually the wifi antenna failed, the letters on some of the keys wore off, and developed a line down the screen. That laptop lasted me 7 years. I ended up giving it to my cousin who didn't have the money to replace his even older Mac and he loves it.

That's value you just don't get anymore from Macs.
 
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Use mine everyday. Only problem battery only lasts about 2 hours. Goes to about 50% and shuts its self off. Apple store told me a year ago it was vintage and they could not replace the battery. Was going to upgrade to 16in but with Apple silicon on it way will wait for rev2. Will probably get an iPad Pro in the mean time and get a new battery for the old pro and hope it lasts.
 
My late 2013 is next on the chopping block - I am shocked it supports Big Sur

This is by far the longest I've ever used a laptop, and it was my first Apple laptop. Definitely converted me.
 
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Anarchy99 said:
its really a good demonstration of intel's failings
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No, it isn't. Hardware should be built to last a long time. This is a demonstration of how well it was built and that includes Intel CPU.

I had 2010 MBP that failed 3 times simply because nVidia GPU had to be replaced all three times due to it being defective. So, even Intel deserve praise for lasting this long _consistently_.
 
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Did anyone replace the battery in this model at non-Apple shop and if yes, what was the cost?
 
Even though it’s obsolete, has anyone tried installing Big Sur on it? It has all the fundamentals: i7 processor, 8 GBs of RAM and most important, SSD storage.
 
Spock said:
I’ve got a mid 2014 MacBook Pro retina and Big Sur will most likely be its last update. It’s been a great notebook, easily my favorite since my 12 in PowerBook G4.
Click to expand...

carrrrrlos said:
Sunset is getting close for my 2014 MBP, which still runs strong.
Click to expand...

Same here; my mid-2014 will get the Big Sur update, but it looks like the end of the road in terms of future updates. Still running really well. I just purchased a maxed-out MBP 16" through work; looking at a 13" for personal use. I'm not sure this one would hold up until the conversion to Apple Silicon. Something to consider though.
 
Definitely the best series. Classic. I regret getting rid of my 2013 for a 2017MBP. I am not even sure the 2017 is that much faster day to day.
 
MacRumors said:


As expected, Apple's first MacBook Pro with a Retina display is now officially classed as "obsolete" worldwide, just over eight years after its release.
Click to expand...

"As expected" Right. Apple is carrying out its own vintage/obsolete policy, which is entirely public. Users can & should plan accordingly.

Don't see why this is news.
 
MikhailT said:
No, it isn't. Hardware should be built to last a long time. This is a demonstration of how well it was built and that includes Intel CPU.
Click to expand...
Yes it is, I agree that Hardware should be built to last a long time, but its is also True that my maxed out 2012 in CPU performance was only 12-15% worse than the maxed out 2015 and if i chose the mid-range 2015 my 2012 would beat it.
its also only about a 15% performance improvement 2015 vs the 2018 i7 the only one with significant performance improvement is some heavily threaded multicore aware workloads was the i9.

thats a failure of intel.
Macs have always had long shelf lives, multiple things can be true at once.
 
MacFather said:
✓ MagSafe
✓ Glowing Apple
✓ SD Card slot
✓ HDMI port
✓ Optical Audio Out
✓ Reliable Keyboard
✓ No T2 Kernel Panics
✓ No soldered storage
✓ No Dongle Hell
✓ No Emoji Bar
Click to expand...


Exactly this.

It made the retina macbook pro one of the best notebooks ever made by Apple, surpassed only by the unibody Macbook pro that preceeded it. Despite the lack of the retina display, those were beasts that I am still using today. When comparing my retina Macbook Pro to the unibody, while the display on the newer one is certainly more pleasing to look at, the keyboard still feels better because of the slightly longer travel. Also, I love the battery indicator and the breathing it did when you closed the lid, like a child sleeping. The new notebooks have none of that "Apple magic" that made these notebooks the best in the business.
 
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I have one of these, and it still works great. The apple logo is cracked, and the battery lasts for not more than an hour, but otherwise it’s still solid. It’s interesting how they say that it’s obsolete, yet still allowing updates to the OS on it.
 
My mom's 2012 15" non-rMBP is still going strong after I doubled the RAM and threw in a SSD. A few white spots on the screen but that's about it. Fast as hell given that it's 8 years old.
 
Wish I was able to get the battery replaced by Apple while I could. Mine is still running strong other than battery life, and it's probably my favorite laptop I've owned. The design was Apple at their best.

I have a 16" and a 2017 27" iMac, so don't use it that much, but still get use out of the 15". I downgraded it back to High Sierra (while still retaining my Mojave install if I want to boot into it, and might upgrade that to Catalina to have that option -- APFS volumes work great in this situation). I had to use a hack to install NVidia web drivers in Mojave, but don't need the hack in High Sierra (stock NVidia drivers have had issues for me starting with High Sierra, which the web drivers solve). Also NVidia CUDA only works in High Sierra, though the GPU isn't much by today's standards.

I'm probably going to install Windows 10 via Boot Camp. Already have a Linux install that boots off an external drive. I have other machines that run macOS well, and it's' nice to have a machine where I have options for what native OS I can use.

This machine doesn't get Big Sur, but it's possible there will be a hack to run it. I don't care that much about running the latest macOS since High Sierra is currently the sweet spot for this machine as far as macOS is concerned, but maybe I will at some point. I used hacks to keep my 2006 Mac Pro running the latest for as long as I could.
 
The 2014 15" was the reliable model in the series. I still can't get over the battery replacement process, tho.
 
We still have (and actively use) ours - I bought it in August 2012 (my first MacBook; previously had a 2001 iBook!) and kept it in great shape. Even the battery had less than 80 cycles until I gave it to my daughter 2 years ago. Only problem is the screen coating has largely come off, leaving ugly patches. But otherwise a superb machine. In fact, the 2012 (if I remember correctly) performed better than some subsequent MBPs because it had a dedicated GPU whereas some later ones did not.
 
MacFather said:
✓ MagSafe
✓ Glowing Apple
✓ SD Card slot
✓ HDMI port
✓ Optical Audio Out
✓ Reliable Keyboard
✓ No T2 Kernel Panics
✓ No soldered storage
✓ No Dongle Hell
✓ No Emoji Bar
Click to expand...

Apple would sell even better if they would heed this checklist. Especially MagSafe, Glowing Apple, Optical Out, and No soldered storage. Although I don't agree with the "No Emoji Bar" - I find it useful. And the Dongle Hell gets solved for only $40 these days:

www.amazon.com

uni USB C Hub, 8-in-1 USB Type C Multiport Hub, 4K HDMI, 1Gbps Ethernet, USB 3.0, SD/MicroSD Card Reader, Up to 100W PD, Compatible with MacBook Pro, iPad Pro, Galaxy S24/S23 & More, 0.7FT

uni USB C Hub, 8-in-1 USB Type C Multiport Hub, 4K HDMI, 1Gbps Ethernet, USB 3.0, SD/MicroSD Card Reader, Up to 100W PD, Compatible with MacBook Pro, iPad Pro, Galaxy S24/S23 & More, 0.7FT
www.amazon.com

which is built like a tank - all metal - and works great. The removable cable, which is really nice and short, allows you to use any usb-c cable you like. I've run this thing all the way across the room. Very convenient to not have the connection cable attached to the hub like 99% of the others.
 
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